LABOUR were put back in control of another Merseyside council last night after Liberal Democrats abstained from a crucial vote.

The Conservative and Lib Dem coalition running Wirral council formally collapsed, leaving Labour back in charge of the town hall.

Despite a disastrous set of election results earlier this month, the Lib Dems’ nine councillors held the balance of power between Labour’s 30 and 27 Tories.

But Lib Dem leader Tom Harney said the coalition had failed to obtain a mandate from the electorate to stay in control.

Instead they abstained on a vote to remove Tory council leader Jeff Green and then install Labour leader Steve Foulkes in his place.

It meant Labour could then outvote the Tories, despite being four short of the 34 needed for an overall majority in the council chamber.

Cllr Harney told the meeting at Wallasey town hall: “We do not have a mandate to continue running the council.”

He said the Lib Dems had “done no deals with Labour” and the next year will be “no easy life” for the party because his group will be “casting votes on an issue-by-issue basis”.

He said: “It remains to be seen if the Labour party has any coherent plans for taking the borough forward.

“The ball is in their court and they must respond in detail. We will not stand for Labour blaming the coalition government for their own shortcomings. The challenges this council face require imagination, creativity and flexibility of thought.”

Cllr Green and other Tory councillors expressed dismay the Lib Dems had chosen not to continue their “progressive partnership” of the last 12 months, listing their achievements.

He said: “I am surprised and disappointed the Lib Dem group have had a collective loss of self confidence.”

Accepting the leadership, Cllr Foulkes called on the other parties to help him convince the government to give Wirral a “fairer” grant, saying the borough had lost £51m because of the way money is distributed to councils.

He said: “Why should we be inflicted with far greater cuts than, for example, Dorset? We lost £91 per head compared with Dorset, which lost £2. We got a raw deal.”